Thursday, November 23, 2017

Great Is Our President And Mighty In Power

Wednesday morning brought, in a dual message, one of President Trump's finest tweets as he remarked

It wasn't the White House, it wasn't the State Department, it wasn't father LaVar's so-called people on the ground in China that got his son out of a long term prison sentence - IT WAS ME. Too bad! LaVar is just a poor man's version of Don King, but without the hair. Just think LaVar, you could have spent the next 5 to 10 years during Thanksgiving with your son in China, but no NBA contract to support you. But remember LaVar, shoplifting is NOT a little thing. It's a really big deal, especially in China. Ungrateful fool!

While Trump believes LaVar Ball is merely "a poor man's version of Don King, but without the hair," Ball would more accurately be described as "a version of Donald Trump, but without the bankruptcies."

Snark aside, much of the criticism of the President focused on his racial motivation, as in Chris Cillizza blasting

the racial dog-whistling he offers up by describing Ball as a "poor man's version of Don King -- without the hair" and blasting him as an "ungrateful fool"....Given Trump's demonstrated willingness -- as a candidate and as president -- to play on racial stereotypes and racial animus to benefit his own political interests, it's impossible to ignore the underlying messaging here.King and Ball are both black. King is someone with a long-held reputation as a over-the-top hype man. By comparing Ball to King, Trump is hoping to minimize him, turn him into a sort of cartoon character in the eyes of the president's political base.

We're accustomed to the Lord Donald's arrogance and ignorance, and even to the peculiarly Trumpian mix of grandiosity and insecurity manifested in a remarkable need for adulation and validation for every action.

The cartoonish insults, in this case "poor man's version of Don King but without the hair," are almost as entertaining as they are rude, unprofessional, and unbecoming of the office of President. These recent tweets, however, combine an incomprehension of civics with gracelessness that would be stunning, if we were to notice.

The rap on the State Department- it wasn't the State Department!- was unsurprising coming from a man who has contempt for American government, American institutions, and the American people. Yet, we failed to notice that President Donald Trump, he of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C., typed "it wasn't the White House."

Although Trump spends an inordinate time at his personal properties, it's nearly inconceivable that he doesn't realize that he actually resides at the White House. It wasn't LaVar's people, the State Department, or the White House. It was me!!!

The White House is shorthand for the President of the United States of America, the most powerful position, we are led to believe, on Earth. Yet even the White House, Trump argues, was unable to extricate Ball's son from the Chinese. It was Donald J. Trump, and Donald J. Trump alone, able to do what even the President is unable (video below from 4/17).